Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM US$102,498

Canon on its website describes the lens as a "remarkable lens, the longest in the world with full auto-focus capability." It contains "two fluorite elements for superb image quality, making it ideal for many professional applications where it's impossible to get close to the subject .... Available upon special order."

As most may very well realize, such a lens does not sit on store shelves, ready to be taken away. Anyone wishing to buy it, has to place a specific order with the company.

Canon launched it for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and only produced five to start with. After the Games concluded, Canon recalled them and upgraded the FD mount to EF mount. Canon later produced several more, but very limited in number.

The company never provided the actual number of this type of lens put on the market. As rumors placed the figure at less than 100, sources claimed the actual number was in fact just "close to 20."

Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Society and a few billionaires are among those who possess it. In 2011, the U.S. digital vendor B&H sold one such lens for a whopping US$1.2 million.

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